Barack, 55, talked briefly about climate change and the challenges it presented to feeding the world’s growing population at the Seeds&Chips Global Food Innovation Summit on Tuesday (May 9) in Milan, Italy.

“When we think about issues like food security or climate change, ultimately politicians can help guide policy, but the energy to bring about change is going to come from what people do every day,” Barack said. “It’s going to come from parents who are concerned about the impact climate change may have on their child, from business people who say how can we use less energy or waste less resources in making our products. It’s millions of decisions made individually that have the ability to make changes.”

“Obviously, the current administration has differences with my administration in terms of energy policy, and that’s part of what happens in democracy,” Barack added. “There will be a useful debate in America, but I think the good news is that, in part because of what we did over the last eight years, the private sector has already made a decision that the future is in clean energy.”